False rape accusations tell us something important about America

Summary: The changes in America are often easily seen in the news, if read analytically (rather than as entertainment). Read about the latest false accusation of rape to see not just a gripping story of injustice and eventual vindication — but also an important trend affecting America. {2nd of 2 posts today.}

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, an all-white jury convicts an innocent black man of raping a white woman in a small 1930s southern town, despite the efforts his lawyer who defies the town’s lynch-mob mentality and proves the victim’s story to be false. It’s a new century, a sequel has just come out — and we still have men being falsely convicted of rape despite the evidence.

The latest example is Mark Weiner, who on a rainy day gave a woman a ride to her home — a good deed ending in a sentence of eight years in jail for abducting a woman with the intent to sexually harm her. There was almost no evidence of his guilt, and considerable exculpatory evidence (some of which was not disclosed to his attorney). Of course, none of that matters to the true believers who increasingly run America. This happened in Charlottesville, home of the infamous fake rape publicized in last November’s Rolling Stone.

“During the sentencing phase of the hearing, {District Attorney} Lunsford reminded the court of previous incidents in which Weiner had made unwelcome advances to two women and called it a ‘pattern of behavior.'”
— “Unwelcome advances” are an indication of criminality when done by a beta male {source}.

For those who believe in the power of the media to limit governmental abuse of power, this story was covered in detail by journalist Lisa Provence (who deserves a career boost from this). As in this story about the Judge’s sentence of 20 years in prison (with 12 years suspended). That is quite impressive since the evidence showed his innocence. This week, after two and a half years in prison, a judge vacated his conviction.

For a summary of the case, see this article at Slate by Dahlia Lithwick. The story received desultory coverage from other news media, such as this from NBC. No wonder news media companies are laying off reporters and watching their profit evaporate, when they ignore such a hot story of injustice.

Not the kind of justice you see on TV in “CSI”

No analysis is complete unless it explains why the key actors felt their actions to be rational. It’s not difficult to see in this case. The DA believed that rape victims tell the truth, and that subjective reality trumps evidence.

“When a reporter asked Lunsford about criticism she’d received for not pursuing justice in this case, the prosecutor said, ‘Sometimes it comes down to, do you believe the victim? I believe her.'” {source}.

“Lunsford has said all along she believes the victim and she’s still not backing down. Instead she says this case is a prime example of why the job’s so difficult: ‘Sometimes, and often in these cases, it’s one person’s word against another so the decision of how to prosecute and whether to prosecute isn’t an easy one. I believed her in this case and that’s why I went forward with it. I felt she was telling the truth and I felt it was a community safety issue.'” (From Slate)

After years of propaganda, it’s a belief often seen. Sophie Hess, general manager of the campus radio station WOBC, talks about the rape accusation made by actress, writer, director Lena Dunham: “Asking whether or not a victim is telling the truth is irrelevant,” Ms. Hess proclaimed. “It’s just not important if they are telling the truth” {source}.

From a broader perspective, it’s just another example of the tribalism that increasingly dominates America.

As Martin van Creveld predicted in The Rise and Decline of the State (1999). We shift our loyalty from the political regime — America — to new groups (e.g., gender, ideology). As always, we our highest loyalty defines our truth. This acts as clumps of metal in the machinery in the State, so that it no longer works well.

We’ve begun the next stage, as this dysfunctionality could encourage us to reform America — or continue shifting our loyalty away from America. Much depends on our choices in the years ahead.

A few high-profile false accusations of rape

The 1987 rape of Tawana Brawley by 3 men (including a police officer), uncritically accepted by journalists (ironically, Bill Cosby was an early supporter) – but fake.

Wanetta Gibson’s false rape accusation in 2002 put football star Brian Banks in prison for 5 years. She recanted in 2011. The verdict was overturned in 2012. Details here.

“UVA, Ferguson and Media Failure, op-ed at the WSJ by Bret Stephens: “Narratives and allegations are not facts, despite what the media would have us believe”. It points to “A Woman’s War” in the 18 March 2007 NYT Magazine, telling how Amorita Randall was raped twice while serving in the Navy, then told by her commander “not to make such a big deal about it.” The key supporting details proved false; the NYT had not allowed the Navy time to verify the facts before publication.

Other articles and studies about false rape accusations

Slate has a well-written but superficial article with some sad stories: “Crying Rape” by Cathy Young — “False rape accusations exist, and they are a serious problem.” Here is a case in Britain of a woman making 4 different accusations of rape against a total of 25 men, two of whom spent years in jail.

See these articles by Francis Walker, rich with links and analysis. She takes a hard look at the soft foundation of the numbers about false rape accusations.

See this from the Washington Examiner; the money paragraph, about conclusions of the not peer-reviewed “MAD Study” by End Violence Against Women International. It’s one of the 2 best known and relatively recent studies of US rape, although from an advocacy organization.

“From all of this one could determine that 15.6% of reports could reliably be determined as false, another 17.9% weren’t actually crimes and just 1.2% (or 2.2%) could be reliably determined as true. The remainder would fall into a “we’ll never know for sure” category. … And beyond all of this, none of this data can be applied to reports of campus sexual assault. There is no data available on the number of campus sexual assault accusations that turn out to be false, as it hasn’t been studied.”

For a different spin on rape see “Today In Rape Apologia, Ayn Rand Edition” by Scott Lemieux (Asst Prof of Political Science at College of St. Rose) at Lawyers, Guns and Money. Ayn Rand is a feminist by many standards, yet the sex scenes in her books often glorify rape. That was considered normal in her day. Such scenes, albeit toned down, are still common in chick lit (Fifty Shades of Grey is the extreme example).

The tide changes on false rape accusations: update in May 2018.

False rape accusations were seldom investigated or prosecuted. The accusations that looks suspicious were ignored, or charges dropped upon investigation. That appear to be changing. Here are a few recent cases. “Always believe the woman” does not look rational.

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44 thoughts on “False rape accusations tell us something important about America”

Terrible injustices happen all the time within our criminal system. Our marijuna laws are insane where people have been locked up for mere possesion, non violent offenders put away for years. 3 strikes you’re out insanty w/o any recourse for the judge. The list is endless and it appears the jails are from another century (Rikers). People put there and held for long periods w/o trials. Debtor’s prison. If you can’t pay you’re held. Quite a system. Poor quality judges who have lost any sense of fairness or reason. Prosecutors who want to win to climb the ladder. Police hiding important information, crime labs with poor analysis.

On the other hand while I’m sure there are false accusations of rape, you have got to be kidding me with this article. Am I reading something from Fox news? Are you saying the majority of women who claim they were raped, actually weren’t? Is Bill Cosby innocent?

“Are you saying the majority of women who claim they were raped, actually weren’t?”

That’s quite a daft thing to say. Strawman much? Or did you not read the post? If you look in the For More Information section you’ll see a brief note about what we know — which isn’t much — about the accuracy of rape accusations. Perhaps you could then try to write a comment about the actual content.

Perhaps others can help. Do you not understand the basis for Mark’s conviction and exoneration? Or is it that you “can’t conclude much” about the incidence of false rape accusations?

The former is easy to explain. As for the latter, I agree. Social science research is expensive and grossly underfunded. Doubly so for controversial subjects like this. Plus it is potentially poisonous to a scientist’s career. No surprise that there is little sound research, and much of what we have is conducted by activists (biased) and not peer-reviewed.

The last point is key. Recent research suggests that perhaps half of peer-reviewed biomedical research fails replication. The rate for social science research might be higher, or much higher. The rate for social science research by activists that is not peer-reviewed might be stratospheric.

I state the key points in the summary and at the end,but I find Americans often wear thick ideological goggles so that they see only a limited range of thoughts (goodthink and crimethink). So I routinely check.

When I was writing my first comment originally I started to write, “are you saying that false accusations are spreading? It’s becoming more common?” I see the article as a mixed bag, incredibly poor justice system but that can be applied across the board to any criminal activity yet your focus was on rape accusations, with an entire list of false accusations.

Wow.
Terrific assemblage of relevant Articles. Fascinating idea of a tribalism at play in the workings of the people involved in the Weiner case and the Lena Dunham affair. Our loyalty defines our truth, interesting distinction. Will yet read MvC’s piece. But that assertion certainly is an explanation of the mindset at work in the Prosecutors decisions and the decisions of the GM of the Radio Station.
If only CW Mills were around to opine on this!
Good stuff with great subtlety to be seen.

Im talking about this ellifeld,
my basis for this claim in the context of this subject is that it seems to hava a heightened sense of justice for almost any type of injustice that is not applied to females.

A California judge’s ruling that a University of California, San Diego, student accused of sexual assault was given an unfair punishment by the school may serve as a warning, legal experts say, to universities that accused students must be given the same rights in the sexual misconduct process as those who file the complaints.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Joel M. Pressman ruled last week that UC San Diego failed to give a fair trial in December 2014 to the student, who was identified only as John Doe in court documents, after a sexual encounter with the accuser that took place in February 2014.

The judge said that because the school didn’t offer Doe access to statements from his accuser or witnesses, and also failed to give him the opportunity to properly cross-examine his accuser in front of the school’s sexual misconduct panel, the university’s processes were unfair. The judge also recommended that Doe’s suspension from UC San Diego be lifted because there wasn’t enough evidence that he pushed his accuser into unwanted sexual activity, as she had alleged.

Methinks this will soon become a typical pattern for the “yes means yes” on-campus sexual misconduct proceedings.
It occurs to me that feminists describe men the way Ku Kklux Klan members describe black people: “They’re violent,” “They’re animals,” “They’re dangerous,” “You can’t be alone with them,” “Watch out, they’ll rape you,” “They have no self-control,” and so on.
It’s amusing to realize that if the description applied to men by feminists were applied to black people or other minorities, there would be a huge uproar over the stereotyping.
Naturally, anyone who points this out must be “a closet rapist,” “probably a member of the Mens’ Rights Movement,” “a chauvinist pig sicko,” “a probable kiddy raper,” etc.

That is a fascinating point about stereotyping of men. I hadn’t thought of that.

Also at work is the categorization of sex, often an inherently suspect activity in western thought. As Andrea Dworkin said:

“Penetrative intercourse is, by its nature, violent. But I’m not saying that sex must be rape. What I think is that sex must not put women in a subordinate position. It must be reciprocal and not an act of aggression from a man looking only to satisfy himself.”

Don’t need to go far down this road to see a need for governmental action, perhaps even stronger then the laws regulating sex in US history (high age of consent, prohibition of adultery, fornication, incest, cross-racial and same-sex relations, regulation of contraception, etc).

Being falsly accused of rape to me, is worst than being robbed. I would rather be robbed than being sent to jail for a false rape claim. I someone robs me they serve time. Why not if falsly accusing of rape? This should be a serious crime, nearing murder or attempted murder.
Please keep in mind these women are abusing the system because they can

Indeed it would be fair, but I think the problem is much more in three details.
a) Extraordinary long jail punishments in extraordinary medieval correctional centers
b) Very lousy judges
c) Lack of innocent until proven guilty principle. Suspects are handled badly de facto.

Now while I don’t call for the Swedish way (it is pretty difficult to end locked up in Sweden and false rape accusations happen there as well), I think Americans should really rethink about why you put people in jail, how you treat human beings in jail, and how you make sure people are not locked up for years without having a fair trial.

In my opinion, trying to get somebody jailed for, say, 5 years should be a pretty severely punishable crime.

Yes, I agree with you Hugh, very much I agree. The same goes for the person that went to jail on a flase rape accusation. But yes, USA treats inmates very badly. I don’t know if there aren’t enough laws to preven that or what

She is in the list of possible false rape accusations, with links to the story.”

0- Fuck Me!!, you got me there.
1- Its not possible, its certain, if you see the texts that she sent to him, before,
AND after, you uwould understand.
2-I said prominent, this is a prominent case and should be prominently displayed,
she prominently displayed her matress in the campus after explicitly asking the guy to have rought anal sex with her, 3 times

“Penetrative intercourse is, by its nature, violent. But I’m not saying that sex must be rape. What I think is that sex must not put women in a subordinate position. It must be reciprocal and not an act of aggression from a man looking only to satisfy himself.”

This means, cutting the bullshit,
that she feels entitled to have an orgasrm for every orgasm you have.
We all know that is never gonna happen

A few months ago while on my way to a professor’s office hours, I saw Emma Sulkowicz with her mattress. She was crossing the street between Broadway and Amsterdam, her face strained under the burden of her bedding. Her hair shimmered aquamarine in the sunlight, a stark contrast with the bland, blue blob she carried on her shoulders. A few of her classmates generously joined her to share the weight of the mattress, and they were an image of solidarity, brought together through a collective distaste for moral repugnance.

I had always respected and supported Emma from afar, but in that moment, I admired her. Her courage has inspired activists around the country to advocate for sexual assault prevention, and despite the odds, her legacy is one of a heroine instead of a martyr.

For those who aren’t following this story, Emma Sulkowicz is the Columbia alumna who toted her mattress around campus last year to protest her own alleged sexual assault by her peer and one-time friend, Paul Nungesser. Two weeks ago, Sulkowicz secretly released a video titled Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol (This Is Not A Rape), directed by Ted Lawson. The name is an allusion to the celebrated surrealist painting, The Treachery of Images, in which René Magritte depicts a pipe but writes “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” beneath it. Said work is an exploration of reality; after all, there is no pipe in sight, only a canvas with a drawing that evokes a pipe.

I’ve never met Emma, though I’d like to. We do have mutual friends, as Columbia University is a small, tight community. And even in our small, tight community, responses to Emma’s latest project varied tremendously. Many actively chose not to watch the video. Few supported the endeavor without critique, and even fewer decried Emma like the critics on her website’s comments section. Most thoughtfully qualified their reactions, lauding their former classmate for her guts while suggesting more effective ways to incite a conversation about sexual assault.

In the news, on the other hand, reportage has been scandalizing. Some have deemed the video a sex tape, others a porno. Sulkowicz calls it performance art, and perhaps all three fit. In the film, she and an unnamed actor enter a dorm room and initiate what seems to be consensual sex until her partner grows violent, removing his condom and maliciously slapping and choking her as she screams in pain and begs him to stop. After he finishes, she lies in her bed, curled in a ball, as he quickly dresses and leaves in silence. Then, she turns onto her back, frozen. Eventually, she stands, wraps herself in a towel, grabs her linens, and returns to her room to make her bed. At the top of the screen sit a series of numbers: 08/27/2012, the date when Emma’s alleged sexual assault took place. But Emma described her rape as nonconsensual anal sex, and in a preface to the video, she wrote that “Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol is not about one night in August, 2012. It’s about your decisions, starting now. It’s only a reenactment if you disregard my words.”

Her words are powerful, especially when she clarifies her intentions. She explains on the tape, “You might be wondering why I’ve made myself this vulnerable. Look—I want to change the world, and that begins with you, seeing yourself.” Finally, after the countless attacks she’s faced on social media because of her mattress performance, she humbly asks her viewers to “watch kindly.”

Sulkowicz follows her video introduction with questions sorted into three categories: searching, desiring and me. She wonders, “Are you searching for proof? Proof of what?” Such a quandary is especially noteworthy, as so many expect proof of a crime that’s sometimes un-provable….

Perhaps I did not read your article carefully enough but thanks to your link to journalist Linda Provence, it is revealed that on July 14th, Weiner’s conviction was overturned, due to even more evidence against the liar who accused him of rape. Perhaps you did not realize this. It is interesting to read that even though the prosecutor (who should be charged and also voted out in November) did ask for the conviction to be set aside, she still says she believed the false rape accuser. Ideology trumps justice in her view and the view of so many other prosecutors and judges, many of them female if not most of them female. This is the end result of neo-feminist ideology.

Great article. This bit,”As always, we our highest loyalty defines our truth. This acts as clumps of metal in the machinery in the State, so that it no longer works well.” made me think. I believe though, that often this shift in loyalty, or lack of loyalty to the state happens because the machinery of the state never worked well.

People’s loyalty to the State is a recent development, from the late 18thC in Europe. During the past 2 centuries European governments usually have worked more poorly than America’s, yet retained the loyalty of their peoples. In fact, their belief that the American government works unusually poorly results from intensive propaganda — ahistorical to both western history and our own history.

Hackers claim to have personal details of more than 37 million cheating spouses on dating website Ashley Madison and have threatened to release nude photos and sexual fantasies of the site’s clients unless it is shut down, blog KrebsOnSecurity reported. Ashley Madison’s Canadian parent, Avid Life Media, confirmed the breach on its systems and said it had since secured its site and was working with law enforcement agencies to try to trace those behind the attack.

The hackers, who call themselves The Impact Team, leaked snippets of the compromised data online and warned they would release customers’ real names, profiles, nude photos, credit card details and “secret sexual fantasies” unless their demands were met, Krebs said. (bit.ly/1fWNcar) Avid Life did not disclose what information was stolen.

The hackers demanded the closure of another of Avid Life Media’s sites, sugar-daddy site “Established Men”, but did not target the company’s “CougarLife” site, which caters for women members looking for “a young stud”. Ashley Madison, which uses the slogan “Life is short. Have an affair”, has been planning to raise up to $200 million through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. “We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information,” Avid Life said, adding that the hackers left behind posts and images on the website detailing their demands. The unauthorised posts have since been removed.

The breach comes about two months after dating site Adult FriendFinder was compromised. That site has an estimated 64 million members. The Impact Team, in a screengrab showing on the Krebs blog, say it had taken over Avid Media systems including customer databases, source code, financial records and emails. “Shutting down AM (Ashley Madison) and EM (Established Men) will cost you, but non-compliance will cost you more,” the hackers said. They said users who had paid a fee to Avid Life to have their personal data permanently deleted had been lied to and the company had retained records, including credit card information.

“… I will give you a few example of how nasty I think it will become, Imagine a Dapp on Ethereum or TorHiddenService Site called HoeFax or SlutFax, a database like Carfax but on certain type of women. Imagine Ashley Madison gets hacked deep.”

I’ve been falsely accused of assault with a deadly weapon and falsely accused of domestic violence. In both cases, I was breaking up with a girlfriend. In both cases, the charges were dropped prior to trial. This was before the state forced the trial regardless of an accuser’s later retraction.

I’m betting there are tons of innocent men who’ve had their lives totally destroyed by vindictive women. Hades hath no wrath like that of a woman scorned. With the push to make ‘Yes Means Yes’ not only the standard for expelling men from college, but to also make it the defacto standard at the criminal justice level, I stopped dating entirely and will remain single. Had I experienced the false accusations today instead of 25 years ago, I would likely have been imprisoned and my life would likely have been destroyed.

When you reach the point that women agree that men’s rights to presumption of innocence and due process should be removed and that women should be believed no matter what – you know you’re dealing with a mass of pathologically narcissistic sociopaths. That’s when you fold and get out of the game.

I believe that the current manufactured statistics Alliances and federal pork bloating triangles that have perverted state law enforcement into fostering and enabling this American rape hysteria..is more than just a stain on American law enforcement, these “Alliances” may actually be illegal.

That’s something I had not thought of! I assumed police were pushed into response to the rape hysteria. Much as they were to the Satantic cult scare of the 1980s. Do you have any evidence for your theory?

Of course, it is logical for police departments to accept Federal funding. For example, they have grossly inadequate funding to process all the rape kits they are required (quite reasonably) to process.